At least 80 per cent of macadamia rainforest trees destroyed for agricultural and resi­dential development; conservation trust started

Posted by waterweek on 17 October 2007

At least 80 per cent of macadamia rainforest trees had been destroyed for agricultural and resi­dential development, reported The Courier Mail (9/10/2007, p. 11).

Conservation trust set up: Lismore grower Ian McConachie had set up the Macadamia Conservation Trust, aimed at protecting the tree that provided the only Australian native produce to have become a major international food. The trust’s primary aim was to ensure wild macadamia numbers did not decrease any further. McConachie, a com­mercial macadamia grower for more than 30 years, started the trust after searching rainforests and finding hardly any of the trees that were also known as Queensland or bauple nuts. Queensland nuts were found along a 600km coastal strip between Grafton, New South Wales, and Maryborough, about 300km north of Brisbane.